Great stuff!_________________There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Hunter S. Thompsonmoviesnoise

click on: more info (versions, prices, sounds), then click on Cacophonator II Kit. There is a PCB layout there. It is using a CD4049 IC (Hex Buffer) for the input stage. At a glance, it appears that you could build a separate smaller board and attach it to the standard Cacophonator circuit (this one). Not sure when I can get time, but I'll probably try this out as it seems to offer a few more possibilities! ...when I do I might have to add a few more scans of the book to this thread. Hope this helps.

Yeah, those switches at the bottom seem to be giving one of two capacitor options. One of the switches appears to be linking two of the pots. Looks like a completely separate stripboard of this version may be needed. Not sure if I have the time to investigate this though. Got too many other things to build or unfinished... and real life commitments/crap getting in the way from time to time! It might be a couple of weeks, but I'll try breadboarding this up. Producing a stripboard shouldn't take too much time, and I have all the components drawn up individually so I should be able to put together a second 'book' chapter reasonably quickly. Need to finish another set of illustrations for a stripboard of a different circuit over the next few days.... so much to do-so little years left!! Let us know if you make some progress in the meantime...

Yeah, those switches at the bottom seem to be giving one of two capacitor options.

I wonder if this is the reason the layout has multiple C3's, C4's, C6's & C11's.

Just seems an odd component numeration to me, and from all the books I've read, this is considered to be bad practice (you should always give each component its own number, even if the values are intended to be the same).

Maybe worth emailing Sascha Neudeck before working on a stripboard layout for this. It does say on his site, "This is a free work, you can copy, distribute, and modify", so I'm sure he will be quite happy to help out and straighten up any uncertainties.

PS. I didn't include the LED or the resistor leading to it. I was advised it would be detrimental to the sound of the cacophonator. Not sure why.

It only makes a difference when you turn it off. Without it, the cap will hold charge a bit longer, creating a longer dying sound as it's turned off._________________What makes a space ours, is what we put there, and what we do there.

If you want anything specific, just ask._________________There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Hunter S. Thompsonmoviesnoise

Well, I do have an idea for a lunetta style effect box for my theremin. (Theremins are my primary interest. Not so much with the bleepy. Although I'm starting to get a taste for it. The cacophonator is a little box full of fun.)

I hope it makes sense. Forgive me if I use the wrong terms. (And don't be shy about setting me straight!)

Recently I learned that the moog etherwave pro does its heterodyning in CMOS - the outputs from its RF oscillators are squared up and XORed - which allows it to have a switchable range - counters can divide the frequency to reduce it by one or two octaves. (This allows it to have a very playable bass register - something which is rather difficult to achieve by conventional theremin circuitry.)

From this it occurred to me that I could do something similar with my etherwave standard - squaring up the audio out and then using a counter to divide the frequency by an integer value - or using a counter inside a phase locked loop to multiply the frequency and shift the pitch up - or using a combination of a divider and a multiplier to create a tone at a just interval above or below the original tone.

My effect box would have a bank of four such divider/multiplier combos followed by a four channel mixer to allow me to dial up different chords and control the relative amplitude of each constituent tone.

That's my theory anyway - whether it is feasible or not and whether it is within the scope of a beginner I have no idea.

A couple of points:

Initially I am happy to have all square wave outputs - later I would probably want to add wave shaping circuitry to give me a range of timbres.

I have recently had my etherwave modified by this chap so that it has a second audio-out at a constant volume, and a second op-amp controlled by the volume loop that takes an external audio source (such as my proposed chord-box) at a constant volume, modulates the volume and sends it to a third audio-out. (This was done to allow me to extend my timbre palette with an Abstract Data Synthex (hard-syncing and frequency modulating oscillator) and to circumnavigate the noise gate in a Snarling Dogs Mold Spore (combo wah and ring-mod treadle). So I won't be needing an envelope follower and VCA to track the theremin's volume._________________I am beat frequency.

HAHA!!! Great to hear Gordon! It's a fun machine for a single chip device! I'm glad somebody built it from the stripboard drawings! It sounds great too!!! Just listen to that huge capacitor discharging!!!!

I'd suggest the WSG too. I built mine from Uncle Krunkus' stripboard design. It was the first thing I built, and it too worked first go! Here's a link to Krunkus' stripboard WSG:

Or you could try an Atari Punk Console if you want a simpler classic design. I've ended up with a Lunetta addiction personally! Although I have been a bit lazy the past couple of weeks. I'm sure you'll enjoy building more stuff in the future, and I look forward to seeing or hearing the results.

EDIT: Try the heterodyne space explorer too! Great for creating heterodyning drones! For such a simple device it gives beautiful moody sounds which you may enjoy:

I like the sound of beautiful moody sounds, so I might give that a try. I think it'll go nicely with my heterodyning space control machine.

Also it looks simple enough to make point-to-point (is that what you call it when you don't use a circuit board?) I could put it in a lovely transparent box with the chip suspended in the middle or something like that. I'll start looking for a suitable box that doesn't oblige me to eat a load of those awful ferrero rocher chocolates._________________I am beat frequency.

Sounds like you have a plan. You could hook up some LED's in the box. Or with some LDR's, you could build something akin to a light theremin! Check out Peter Vogel's work, if you are not already familiar with it:

Optical theremin? I have no objection to other people building them, but I've tried a few and they're not for me, thank you. Give me capacitive sensing every time. Although, having said that, the TSL230R looks like a fun little chip. (datasheet) Here's some pix of probably the simplest possible opto-theremin, based on it.

At some point I'd like to do something with flex sensors and gloves, but they're a bit pricey. Maybe when I've got a good selection of different circuits built I can give them the option of overriding their pots with a glove controller.

Those are some damn elegant circuit sculptures. Here's a lovely transparent theremin by Dominik Bednarz. Sounds great too. And it's pretty playable. My stuff will probably have more of a "fuck it, that'll do" aesthetic. The missus brought home some clear tupperware style boxes today. I think one of them might get repurposed. _________________I am beat frequency.

the general rule is to use voltage ratings at least twice the size of your pwr source just to be on the safe side.
So for 5v source get at least 10v rated caps; 9v - 18v and so on. Using anything over that is perfectly ok, the size of the caps just usually goes up as the voltage rating does.

"the hero, of Gaelic champion, the onliest of her choice, her bleaueyedeal of a girl‘s friend, neither bigugly nor smallnice, meaning pretty much everything to her then, with his sinister dexterity, light and rufthandling, vicemversem her ragbags et assaucyetiams, fore and aft, on and offsides,"

I know it also gets a mention in Herman Melville's Billy Budd and go(perpe)go by ee cummings, but 2000AD? That's new to me._________________I am beat frequency.

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